GZA – Words From The Genius (1991)
Today we take a trip back to the early nineties, exactly 35 years ago, to unearth one of those albums that often flies under the radar of younger listeners and even some hardcore Wu-Tang heads. We are talking about Words From The Genius, the debut studio effort from Gary Grice, released on February 19, 1991, through Cold Chillin’ Records. Long before he became GZA, the “spiritual head” of the Wu-Tang Clan, Gary performed under the moniker The Genius.
At that time, Cold Chillin‘ was an absolute institution, home to legends like Big Daddy Kane and Biz Markie. However, the label was nearing the end of its prime, and their vision for The Genius was significantly flawed. They tried to market him as a “smooth” player in the New Jack Swing mold, which is most evident on the lead single “Come Do Me.” Produced by Jesse West, the track attempted to blend rap with the R&B sound dominating the charts at the time, but the streets simply didn’t buy it.
The most legendary of these is the skit at the end of the track “What Are Silly Girls Made Of”. In this dialogue, The Genius tries to pick up girls by inviting them for a ride in his “new car.” When they ask what he’s driving, he proudly replies that he has a new Yugo! The girl’s response has since become a hip hop classic: “I don’t believe him, he got champagne thoughts and Bud Light money.” Back then, the Yugo was the ultimate symbol of a budget car in America, costing around $3,500, and this moment perfectly captured the street humor and social reality of the era.
However, if we look past those commercial attempts, the album hides some serious boom-bap gems. Most of the production (10 out of 15 tracks) was handled by Easy Mo Bee, then a young producer who would later redefine the New York sound while working on Notorious B.I.G.’s debut. His beats on tracks like “Life Of A Drug Dealer” and “The Genius Is Slammin’” are heavy and funk-driven, providing Gary the space to showcase his incredible lyrical arsenal. Even then, GZA possessed one of the largest vocabularies in the game, and his metaphors were surgically precise.
The album flopped commercially due to a lack of promotion, leading Gary to leave the label and return to the grind, even working as a bicycle messenger for a while. But that failure was pivotal—the idea for the Wu-Tang Clan was born out of that frustration and disappointment with the music industry. Interestingly, Cold Chillin’ tried to capitalize on the Clan’s success in 1994 by releasing a reissue of the album. In that version, they swapped the pop-heavy “Come Do Me” for “Pass The Bone,” a track featuring his cousin Prince Rakeem (RZA). It was the first real glimpse of the chemistry that would eventually change the course of hip hop history.
Words From The Genius might not be a masterpiece on the level of Liquid Swords, but it is essential listening for anyone wanting to understand the roots of the Shaolin style. It is a document of an artist finding his voice within a system that didn’t understand him, right before he decided to build his own empire.
